Person vs Machine? or not...

When you go to an afternoon of talks on the Human and Technology, life can get interesting really quick.  That’s what happened to me (and a couple hundred other people) on January 15th in Aarau.

The topics were challenging and worth revisiting.  Dr. Katja Gentinetta spoke on AI as Intelligence or AI as Ignorance, where the boundaries for both humans and machines lie.  She spoke about “Hirtus” that soft space of rock between hard rocks as a metaphor for humans being able to reflect and create after the decision is made on what might be needed.  She said that the machine will never be able to reflect and make a new idea and decision based on the reflection.  It is the either/pr kind of thinking that AI is so good at, after all. My take away from her talk was that hardly anyone in the room was willing to raise their hand and admit that they were afraid of Robots and AI.  I am, and with good reason, I think.  She said we should be afraid of AI because it is only 1 or 0, or to quote her, dumb.  The responsibility of AI will always lie with us, the humans.

Both Dr. Steffi Burkhart and Gerd Leonhard stressed the European value of making sure that the Human is the center of all progress (ie. The progress helps the human), and not just for the sake of progress.  This is “nice”, but what does it mean, concretely and for which industries.

Much was discussed regarding the next generation, how to “attract” them and keep them at work, those so-called experts who don’t have the same boomer values of those who have the power.  It is clear that new work kinds of situations will have to become a value to keep these valuable employees, and AI can help with that. But robots, what will that be like, will we have robots as colleagues?  Our mindsets need to change and not be reactive, but proactive.

Many future dangers were mentioned by the different speakers: addiction to media (smart phones and even Netflix), global warming, extreme weather, data fraud and theft, cyber attacks, to mention a few.

In the end, we need to be aware, be educated, and most importantly, be in charge.  Don’t let progress “just happen”, but drive it, for the good of the people on the whole planet.  The human must remain in the center and the robots and AI work for the human.

I am still thinking about those talks because they were important for our future.

What have you been doing to grow and learn?

Patricia Jehle   patricia@jehle-coaching.com